Thinking about the City Dark
I think I want to explore more about what is out there and the beauty. "Seeing the universe around us tell us about our own part of
the universe, and to close that door....would change the character of humankind entirely" (Kuhn qtd. in City Dark). That one sentence speaks volumes in itself. People need to slow down in this world, they are running way to fast. You can find that in the stories of your Elders if you will take the time to listen to their stories. If you are fortunate enough to have a grandparent, or great-grandparent alive, sit back and listen to their stories. They have plenty to tell. My grandpa was Cherokee, he farmed by the moon, his crop depended on the weather, and nature was very important to him. Some of you are so young now, that your parents may be my age, and if they don't pass the ways of nature down to you, you will miss so much.
If the door is closed, I don't know what would happen to humanity. I know I certainly would not, at my age, want to be part of it. Technology is great. The more we can learn about the universe around us is exceptional. The dividing line on this, is when technicality overcomes any appreciation of the beauty and taking time to absorb,
and realizing what will happen if things go on the way they are. I love technology,electricity,all the goodies we have today, but my mama did her homework by a kerosene lantern, an I remember the first television we got. It was totally amazing and it was not in color. We played outside a lot, we read, we played music, and we were not worried about the lag time on a game if our computer, our 360, and our television was not up to par.
There is a very thin line to love what we have now and play as we do, and to also experience the serenity of the night sky and the botanical gardens, and other natural beauty surrounding us. Yes, I do realize we go to Livingston or wherever, they are cutting down the trees all the way to Cleveland, it looks horrible, and my son chooses to go down Highway 105 because of all the trees on each side of the road and not much around even though his phone does lose service. He is very much the environmentalist and he loves and wants the latest technology too. That's where that fine line comes in again, like the thin line of love and hate. We want to see the heavens, but are we actually doing anything in our cities to improve the environment. Some cities are.
In Austin, it is so pretty, they have their entertainment and businesses but they devote time to their parks, different falls, and the water. They also have incorporated the amber street lights that are arched to show downward so you can still see where you are but it is not lighting up the sky where you can see nothing. I am sure more and more cities have done and are doing the same thing as Austin. If not, more should and if there is enough awareness and push, there are many things people can do to make it happen. I understand I may sound foreign to some of you, since I was the child of the 70's with peace and love and the Vietnam War wrapping up. I still believe in these things, even today.
My son that is very much the environmentalist, has always lived in town, my oldest son has always lived in the country with my parents does not appreciate the country as my son who grew up in small towns. The one who grew up in the small towns sees his grandparents place as a stable, quiet retreat where you watch the stars, can hear the frogs, crickets, the occasional howl of a wolf, and the tranquility he feels there. He doesn't want to lose that. I relay as many stories as I can, and my daddy who doesn't farm the land as my grandpa, but has stories of his own from his dad. By the way, the Internet isn't real good out there and cost twice as much as what we pay in town.
If the door was closed, I cannot imagine this world. We are only a small part of this universe. You have to remember the universe doesn't just center around us. We have to protect our part of it, as we progress on. The environmentalists and the counterpart should not be at odds with each other. They should find a happy medium to work out the solution to keep things in harmony. Surely even the young folks of today have noticed how the seasons are not like they use to be when they were little. Sometimes you can hardly recognize a season, except for fall leaves, but you have surely noticed how each year it seems to intertwine just a bit more. December being hot and February not so cold, then the March wind is colder than you thought it should be. While these are actually very large things happening, the changes may seem very small to some. My son just mentioned yesterday how the wind felt upon his face and he's 22. Then when he had to go to work, he called to tell me how strong the wind was as he was trying to drive. I would think that if he notices things like that at his age, that a majority of people notice the same things.
There has got to be a way to keep the sky open to us to see the heavens or universe, however you may see it. I would sure hate to see my grandpa work his calloused hands in this day and age for his food with the way the weather has become so unpredictable. Yes, he finally got a tractor, but there was years of hard labor with a plow and a horse. Look how the Amish live, is it really so bad not to just have the biggest and best of everything. We all can learn from our teacher who has made it a lifestyle of his own, his travels, the hiking he and his wife do together, even his food. He has made a wise choice and I wish I could be more like that. He is very conscious of the universe and the light pollution, and the mechanisms to mimic the night. He spoke of this in class.
I also like the comment made by Cheney when he says that "seeing the stars is like seeing the earth from space. You suddenly realize the uniqueness and the fragility of life on the planet, which is a reminder, as well, that it's more than just humans who are losing the night" (City Dark). It was spoken in class about the baby turtles not knowing to follow the night light glistening over the ocean but were drawn to glaring lights making them lose their way. Think about the owls, and even the dogs, all the animals that never see or cannot see because of the light. They not only lose their ability to survive and go which way they should, but they lose their sense of direction, and natural habitation. They won't be able to hunt at night because they won't be able to see. They won't be able to protect themselves because they can't hide. This concerns me a great deal because I am much more into animals than people. I feel that people make their own destinations and they have the power to turn it around or totally blow it away. As the animals of this earth we live on are affected by man and has always been to some extent.
I saw an owl the other day, I use to see the owl looking in my bedroom window at night on the pole outside the bedroom window as he hunted for all those little field mice. The wolves use to come in my backyard, as they walked by I spoke to their little family graciously without stepping out of my back door and the biggest one just looked with a smooth grunt, as the baby and another followed. Do you ever see that now? One of my causes I fight for is the protection of the wolves. How confused an animal must feel? We are the ones that are suppose to have the higher power of brain functioning, what are we doing to ourselves and the ones we should be protecting? How many coyotes, which are probably not nearly as loved, but you see trying to cross the road between Mont Belvieu and Dayton laying in the center of the road? This cannot help but be personal. I have only seen the two parts of the movie. I have not seen the first part. I have to go to the library and get this started in sequence to get the most out of this but from what I've watched it is a much sobering movie. If you feel nothing as you watch these babies which I didn't like seeing that part at all, but just because I preferred not to see it, doesn't mean it's not happening. When our professor asked about liking that scene and I said no, it wasn't because I didn't care, it was what he said. If those little babies were that confused and didn't make it to the water in so much time, they would die and who is causing such confusion, humans.You must understand the frailty of their lives as you realize how fragile your own life is if this world continues to destroy itself. Yes, I did say that and I don't care at this point how this is graded because this is a conviction of morals, values and how critical it is, and it is about living and surviving. There are giant corporations that will excel at whatever cost, but there are also corporations that are trying to implement other ways to combat these problems. There are many organizations that you can hook up with and actually do some good. You know if you haven't thought of it before, this class, our professor is showing us what it is all about an it is up to us to give a .......!
the universe, and to close that door....would change the character of humankind entirely" (Kuhn qtd. in City Dark). That one sentence speaks volumes in itself. People need to slow down in this world, they are running way to fast. You can find that in the stories of your Elders if you will take the time to listen to their stories. If you are fortunate enough to have a grandparent, or great-grandparent alive, sit back and listen to their stories. They have plenty to tell. My grandpa was Cherokee, he farmed by the moon, his crop depended on the weather, and nature was very important to him. Some of you are so young now, that your parents may be my age, and if they don't pass the ways of nature down to you, you will miss so much.
If the door is closed, I don't know what would happen to humanity. I know I certainly would not, at my age, want to be part of it. Technology is great. The more we can learn about the universe around us is exceptional. The dividing line on this, is when technicality overcomes any appreciation of the beauty and taking time to absorb,
and realizing what will happen if things go on the way they are. I love technology,electricity,all the goodies we have today, but my mama did her homework by a kerosene lantern, an I remember the first television we got. It was totally amazing and it was not in color. We played outside a lot, we read, we played music, and we were not worried about the lag time on a game if our computer, our 360, and our television was not up to par.
There is a very thin line to love what we have now and play as we do, and to also experience the serenity of the night sky and the botanical gardens, and other natural beauty surrounding us. Yes, I do realize we go to Livingston or wherever, they are cutting down the trees all the way to Cleveland, it looks horrible, and my son chooses to go down Highway 105 because of all the trees on each side of the road and not much around even though his phone does lose service. He is very much the environmentalist and he loves and wants the latest technology too. That's where that fine line comes in again, like the thin line of love and hate. We want to see the heavens, but are we actually doing anything in our cities to improve the environment. Some cities are.
In Austin, it is so pretty, they have their entertainment and businesses but they devote time to their parks, different falls, and the water. They also have incorporated the amber street lights that are arched to show downward so you can still see where you are but it is not lighting up the sky where you can see nothing. I am sure more and more cities have done and are doing the same thing as Austin. If not, more should and if there is enough awareness and push, there are many things people can do to make it happen. I understand I may sound foreign to some of you, since I was the child of the 70's with peace and love and the Vietnam War wrapping up. I still believe in these things, even today.
My son that is very much the environmentalist, has always lived in town, my oldest son has always lived in the country with my parents does not appreciate the country as my son who grew up in small towns. The one who grew up in the small towns sees his grandparents place as a stable, quiet retreat where you watch the stars, can hear the frogs, crickets, the occasional howl of a wolf, and the tranquility he feels there. He doesn't want to lose that. I relay as many stories as I can, and my daddy who doesn't farm the land as my grandpa, but has stories of his own from his dad. By the way, the Internet isn't real good out there and cost twice as much as what we pay in town.
If the door was closed, I cannot imagine this world. We are only a small part of this universe. You have to remember the universe doesn't just center around us. We have to protect our part of it, as we progress on. The environmentalists and the counterpart should not be at odds with each other. They should find a happy medium to work out the solution to keep things in harmony. Surely even the young folks of today have noticed how the seasons are not like they use to be when they were little. Sometimes you can hardly recognize a season, except for fall leaves, but you have surely noticed how each year it seems to intertwine just a bit more. December being hot and February not so cold, then the March wind is colder than you thought it should be. While these are actually very large things happening, the changes may seem very small to some. My son just mentioned yesterday how the wind felt upon his face and he's 22. Then when he had to go to work, he called to tell me how strong the wind was as he was trying to drive. I would think that if he notices things like that at his age, that a majority of people notice the same things.
There has got to be a way to keep the sky open to us to see the heavens or universe, however you may see it. I would sure hate to see my grandpa work his calloused hands in this day and age for his food with the way the weather has become so unpredictable. Yes, he finally got a tractor, but there was years of hard labor with a plow and a horse. Look how the Amish live, is it really so bad not to just have the biggest and best of everything. We all can learn from our teacher who has made it a lifestyle of his own, his travels, the hiking he and his wife do together, even his food. He has made a wise choice and I wish I could be more like that. He is very conscious of the universe and the light pollution, and the mechanisms to mimic the night. He spoke of this in class.
I also like the comment made by Cheney when he says that "seeing the stars is like seeing the earth from space. You suddenly realize the uniqueness and the fragility of life on the planet, which is a reminder, as well, that it's more than just humans who are losing the night" (City Dark). It was spoken in class about the baby turtles not knowing to follow the night light glistening over the ocean but were drawn to glaring lights making them lose their way. Think about the owls, and even the dogs, all the animals that never see or cannot see because of the light. They not only lose their ability to survive and go which way they should, but they lose their sense of direction, and natural habitation. They won't be able to hunt at night because they won't be able to see. They won't be able to protect themselves because they can't hide. This concerns me a great deal because I am much more into animals than people. I feel that people make their own destinations and they have the power to turn it around or totally blow it away. As the animals of this earth we live on are affected by man and has always been to some extent.
I saw an owl the other day, I use to see the owl looking in my bedroom window at night on the pole outside the bedroom window as he hunted for all those little field mice. The wolves use to come in my backyard, as they walked by I spoke to their little family graciously without stepping out of my back door and the biggest one just looked with a smooth grunt, as the baby and another followed. Do you ever see that now? One of my causes I fight for is the protection of the wolves. How confused an animal must feel? We are the ones that are suppose to have the higher power of brain functioning, what are we doing to ourselves and the ones we should be protecting? How many coyotes, which are probably not nearly as loved, but you see trying to cross the road between Mont Belvieu and Dayton laying in the center of the road? This cannot help but be personal. I have only seen the two parts of the movie. I have not seen the first part. I have to go to the library and get this started in sequence to get the most out of this but from what I've watched it is a much sobering movie. If you feel nothing as you watch these babies which I didn't like seeing that part at all, but just because I preferred not to see it, doesn't mean it's not happening. When our professor asked about liking that scene and I said no, it wasn't because I didn't care, it was what he said. If those little babies were that confused and didn't make it to the water in so much time, they would die and who is causing such confusion, humans.You must understand the frailty of their lives as you realize how fragile your own life is if this world continues to destroy itself. Yes, I did say that and I don't care at this point how this is graded because this is a conviction of morals, values and how critical it is, and it is about living and surviving. There are giant corporations that will excel at whatever cost, but there are also corporations that are trying to implement other ways to combat these problems. There are many organizations that you can hook up with and actually do some good. You know if you haven't thought of it before, this class, our professor is showing us what it is all about an it is up to us to give a .......!
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